PD Essentials Conference Recap

From October 11-14, Pastor Rick Warren hosted PD Essentials to share the PD vision, values, principles, and processes on which Saddleback was built. Hosted at Saddleback Lake Forest, over 1,200 people attended to hear the foundations for building a healthy church.

According to Pastor Rick, “For a long time, I’ve been wanting to set aside four days to teach the basics on which our church is founded, and on which thousands of other churches around the world have modeled their ministry.”

Nearly a decade had passed since Pastor Rick had shared the PD lectures in America. This led to him prioritizing church health locally for 2016, by hosting PDC16 in June and PD Essentials this month. The Essentials gathering was a chance to revisit the PD principles, learn the foundations for building a healthy church, and build momentum for the Year of Hope in 2017.

For four days, attendees gathered around tables in the Lake Forest Worship Center, taking notes on seven topics shared over 10 sessions. They included:

The conference featured teachings from Pastor Rick, music by the Saddleback Worship Team, and 23 labs covering everything from turning attenders into members, to helping people grow to spiritual maturity. The conference motivated, encouraged, and equipped both Saddleback staff and pastors from around the world.

“Churches need a system to install more than they need inspiration,” says Pastor Rick. “They need the ‘how to’s’ of balancing the five principles. PD is just that––the DNA of the body of Christ and the Intel chip of the 21st century church.”

For those unable to attend PD Essentials, on-demand viewing is available of all archived content through October 2017. Click HERE to learn more about PD Essentials on-demand.

Join Pastor Rick and other leaders at our 2017 Purpose Driven Conference, open for registration now. For more information, visit pd.church/events.
Memorable quotes by Pastor Rick at PD Essentials 2016:
– If you want to know how much you’re worth, look at the cross.
– I want to challenge you to commit to the journey to be driven by the eternal purposes of God.
– The Lord’s purposes prevail!
– May we look forward to the PD journey with great expectation.
– Resistance to the Gospel is often just poor communication.
– Be wise in the way you act toward unbelievers.
– Stop saying, “People are closed to the Gospel,” and start saying, “How can I get on their wavelength?”
– Talk to unbelievers!
– If you don’t ask the right questions, you won’t get the right answers.
-If you don’t get the right answers, you won’t develop the right strategy.
– If you don’t develop the right strategy, you won’t get the right results.
– Longevity is a key factor to a healthy church.
– Start where people are, not where you want them to be.
– You can’t expect unbelievers to act like believers, until they are.
– Start with culture, not laws.
– If your church is going to be effective in evangelism, you must be flexible.
– Be fast, fluid, and flexible!
– See what God is doing, and catch the wave. Wait and be receptive.
– Vision is not the ability to predict the future. Vision is the ability to see the opportunity in the current moment and jump on it.
– How willing are you to adapt to reach people for Christ?
– The methods change, not the message. The message will NEVER change.
– Focus on the symptoms of unbelievers to get to the real problems.
– The keys to a person’s heart are: hurts, needs, questions, or interests.
– The Good News is Good News only if it gets there on time.
– The felt needs of unchurched Americans are primarily emotional and relational.
– Everybody needs love, acceptance, purposes, and forgiveness.
– If your church is meeting the needs of your community, attendance will not be a problem.
– Let the mindset of unbelievers determine our evangelistic strategy.
– Let the culture of unbelievers determine our evangelistic style.
– Use more than one hook, when fishing like Jesus; offer people choices!
– The more hooks you use, the more fish you’ll catch; use more outreach!
– Wrong question: How much will it cost? Right question: Who will it reach?
– Money spent on evangelism is never an expense; it is always an investment.
– The people you reach will more than repay what you’ve spent.
– Churches really never have money problems; they have idea problems.
– People give to vision, not need.
– Stop worrying about your finances, and focus on your faith.
– You attract what you are, not what you want.